The king is not God: Paundraka’s illusion and democratic crisis
Once upon a time, there lived King Paundraka, who declared himself the sole, genuine Vasudeva—the divine incarnation. He dressed himself in artificial divine regalia, wearing a fake four-armed harness, carrying an artificial lotus and a counterfeit discus, and demanding that his subjects and surrounding kingdoms accept him as the supreme deity.
Egged on by sycophants and courtiers who fed his ego, Paundraka raised a massive army and formed military alliances, including one with the King of Kashi, to enforce his claim and wipe out dissent, according to the Bhagavata Purana (Canto 10, Chapter 66). The Mahabharata and the Vishnu Purana also feature the legend of King Paundraka.
Anyone who pointed out the absurdity of Paundraka’s claims—including wise advisers and envoys who knew that Krishna was the true Vasudeva—faced imprisonment, military intimidation or execution. When his messengers demanded that Krishna surrender his divine title of Vasudeva to Paundraka, Krishna annihilated Paundraka on the battlefield and shattered his illusion.
Let us hold the story of how Krishna smashed Paundraka’s illusion for now and look at the current scenario in India, that’s Bharat, in the context of how a democratically elected regime is treating a democratically elected Opposition and citizens at large when it comes to dissent and protests.
Verified reports say that the Election Commission of India has deleted the names of over 15 crore voters from the electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The ECI’s own findings indicate that the names of 10,470 voters have been affected by irregularities in Pilibhit Sadar Assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh, which is scheduled to go to the polls early next year.
Ahead of the Assembly polls in West Bengal, the SIR brought down the number of electors from 7.66 crore to 6.75 crore, marking an overall net deletion of 11.9% of the state’s voter base. Judicial officers appointed to the Supreme Court-mandated tribunals have reportedly found that 90% of those who challenged the deletion of their names were valid voters.
But the tribunals are so ill-equipped and the process so cumbersome that it could take decades to verify the names of the massive number of voters listed as having “died, disappeared, shifted or migrated”, even though many remain alive and present in their villages and localities. Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Goa, Delhi and several other parts of India are also grappling with allegations of voters disappearing from the electoral rolls.
Citizens from north to south and east to west are up in arms against the deletion of their names. Opposition parties organised a mammoth rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, November 1, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the annulment of the ill-conceived SIR process. The Supreme Court is facing a stream of petitions from individuals, civil society groups and Opposition leaders challenging the SIR and the role of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Citizens, civil society groups, student organisations and most non-Bharatiya Janata Party–Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh parties have been up in arms, taking to the streets on a daily basis for the last four months or so. In brazen disregard of the Supreme Court’s 2023 verdict on including the Chief Justice of India in the panel for appointing the CEC, the Narendra Modi-led government put in place a mechanism that enabled it to appoint a CEC of its own choice. Gyanesh Kumar is, apparently, the Prime Minister’s choice rather than the appointee of a neutral panel.
The approach and actions of ruling-party ministers, legislators and Hindutva cadres towards protesters and dissenters bear a striking similarity to those of the mythical King Paundraka. It is not known whether Prime Minister Modi or RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat have read or taken a leaf from Paundraka’s book, but they appear to be in “alliance and agreement” in dealing with dissenters and protesters.
The entire machinery of the ruling establishment is out on the streets, describing citizens stripped of their voting rights, the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), a student outfit, and Opposition parties—including the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Left parties—that oppose what they see as Gyanesh Kumar’s high-handedness as “anarchists” and “foreign-financed conspirators seeking to destabilise India”.
Vile Act
Modi and his alter ego, Amit Shah, have deployed the police and paramilitary forces, unleashing an array of measures against protesters: pellet guns, mass detentions, “peace bonds”, intimidation, threats to life and vilification.
The regime has also unleashed the legacy media, barring a few exceptions, and its trolls across ubiquitous social media platforms to vilify the victims of the SIR and protesters from civil society, student groups and Opposition parties.
The “public impeachment motion” against Gyanesh Kumar and the subsequent rally at Ramlila Maidan coincided with BJP ministers, MPs and MLAs taking to the streets in Delhi and several other parts of the country to indulge in the vile act of observing the anniversary of the “anti-Sikh riots” of 1984.
While Hindutva cadres have taken their “Hindu-Muslalman, India-Pakistan” game to a crescendo, using terms such as “ghuspaithiya” and “jehadis” for Muslims, social media trolls are mining old newspaper clippings to highlight the Congress-led regime’s role in the pogrom against Sikhs more than four decades ago and the protests against the Emergency five decades ago.
Back to King Paundraka and Krishna
When Paundraka’s envoy read out his message demanding that Krishna surrender his Vasudeva title to Paundraka, Krishna’s courtiers Ugrasena and Yadu laughed heartily at the counterfeit king’s absurdity. Krishna, however, calmly rode out in his chariot to confront Paundraka and his ally, the King of Kashi, who had joined forces with three vast akshauhinis (military formations).
Paundraka had painted his skin dark blue to match Krishna’s complexion. He wore imitation yellow silk garments (pitambara), a counterfeit Kaustubha gem and a fake four-armed wooden harness. He rode a chariot flying a banner displaying an eagle, imitating Garuda, and carried replica weapons into battle. Paundraka’s coalition attacked Krishna’s chariot with a barrage of arrows, spears and maces. But an ever-smiling Krishna effortlessly destroyed their forces using his bow, Saranga, and his mace, Kaumodaki.
Krishna’s title of Vasudeva represented the supreme master of the universe and protector of universal values against power-drunk tyrants. One may be tempted to compare Paundraka with Narendra Modi, who has a penchant for presenting himself in saffron robes with a damru and has also claimed to be “non-biological”.
But unlike in the era of the Bhagavata Purana and the Mahabharata, when Krishna-Vasudeva annihilated tyrants such as Paundraka and Kansa, we live in a democracy in which the people hold the ultimate authority to rein in a dictatorial ruler. They cannot do it the way Krishna did, but they can do so by raising their voices, protesting on the streets and fighting on legal and constitutional forums.
From that perspective, the Congress-led Opposition’s rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi has created a ray of hope among citizens battling what they see as the tyranny of mass disenfranchisement, state-sponsored violence, intimidation and collective harassment. The country had not witnessed such a rally in which the Congress, under Rahul Gandhi, worked as a genuine umbrella, while leaders of the Samajwadi Party, RJD, Left parties and other parties occupied equally respectable space in the recent past.
Modi’s ministers, BJP legislators and the RSS chief have repeatedly described the protests as “anarchy sponsored by foreign powers”. Rahul Gandhi has given a befitting reply: “Modi is surviving on the support of foreign powers. He is compromised. I am ready to debate with him at the time and place of his choosing.”
Indians are, perhaps, identifying the counterfeit leaders posing as their benefactors.